Page 20 of Clean Hack
Then a string of cuss words and a lot of what sounded like boots on the ground. Or a heard of elephants. It was pretty much the same. The tablet sounded if it clamored to the ground or a hard surface and I heard people barking orders.
The air froze in my lungs. I didn’t have eyes where I needed it the most so I had no idea how bad the damage was.
I found out the next day.
Tank’s house had been blown to bits. His little boy had been inside and assumed dead by the blast. They hadn’t even started going through the rubble because it was still smoking. But there had been nothing found. Which wasn’t surprising because if the explosion was as massive as they made it seem, then there wouldn’t have been much left. Or if there was, it wouldn’t have been intact.
I broke right then. My heart ached and my soul cried for these people and especially that little kid.
How could this have happened?
Diesel and Tank had been outside. The little boy asleep in his bed. Diesel had managed to walk away with minor scraped and bruises. Tank had been knocked back and covered with blown out parts of his home. He was in a coma with second and third-degree burns covering nearly half of his body. He would have been dead too if he hadn’t been pulled out by Diesel.
For three months the club went mad. They buried the memory of a boy even when they didn’t have a body to put there. They fought. They raged. They even prayed in their own way. They tore each other apart then came together, stronger than I’d ever seen them.
The whole time, Tank remained in a coma.
And Savage ran free.
Though he didn’t do this directly, it was because of him. Because he needed to be number one. He terrorized and threw a fit like a child when he didn’t get his way. Only he handled it more like a deranged, evil man. He killed. He snuffed out beautiful life like it was nothing. All to prove a point and gain the upper hand.
Three months and I kept my pain to myself. Never letting on to Nadya or Clean on our short conversations.
“Ashburn Security,” he answered in his usual chipper tone.
“Where is he, Tristan?!” I barked, surprising myself just a little.
“Using my full name, you must have finally snapped,” he said unaffected by me. “I honestly didn’t think it would take you this long. He’s been under for what now…a little over a year?”
It was closer to two, but I didn’t bather to correct him.
“I need answers!” I all but screamed.
“Shit,” he said and his tone took me a little by surprise. “Yeah, okay. Alright. I don’t know a whole lot of what’s going on. But, just give me a minute.”
The hold music clicked on before I could say anything else. It grated on my nerves as I waited.
And waited.
And fucking waiting until the point that I wanted to throw my phone up against the wall and start chewing on my nails or something.
“Lucy,” the big boss said in an almost sigh. Like I was the problem here not the fact that I had been fucking blind for so long. I needed updates. I figured they would have understood that especially after I explained the circumstances. Fuck, I was getting pissed. “I’ll try to get through to him. It may take a few days. I hope that is good enough for you.”
And then all the fight fled my body. I knew I was about to turn crazy chick on him, but I also understood that he was in a tight spot. He was trying, or going to try, rather. I had no doubt that he wanted to help me but felt that his hands were a bit tied. He’d never do anything to put his men in danger, which was exactly what I was asking of him.
“Thank you, Harrison,” I said in a genuine tone.
“Yeah,” he said softly. “I get it, I do.”
Then he was gone. He gave me more time than I probably deserved.
I sat there for a long while, my phone gripped tightly in my hand like I was waiting for Burke to call me right away. I knew he wouldn’t because getting in contact with him would take time. They wouldn’t risk exposing him for anything. And that meant that I might not ever get the call that I was waiting for.
An alert popped up on one of my screens, distracting me temporarily. I pulled up the feed from the cabin that Nadya was watching. There was movement and I quickly picked up the phone and called Nadya to see if she’d seen it for herself.
“He’s there,” I said in a whisper, but I couldn’t tell you why. It wasn’t like anyone could hear us.
“Yeah, I see that,” she replied and I detected a light laughter to her tone. “Well, I did until I had to answer to talk to you.” And there was the sarcasm that I was used to at this point.
